Best and Worst Regional Titles and Themes

What do you think the best and worse titles and theme tunes were for BBC and ITV Regional News in the pre-corporate era?

A few of my favourites to start off

BBC Spotlight - This variant, the later one wasn't as good in my opinion
https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=77519

ITV Central News South - Out of the hundreds sets of titles and themes they had across the central region in this era, this was the best in my opinion
https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=95521

Worst

BBC Look East - looks like a new crime drama or east anglian version of crimewatch
https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=119265

Border Lookaround - the fact they were still using this early 90s effort in 2001
https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=89667

BEST

Carlton Central News, 2001

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=94181


and


Central News, 1997

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=93468

Always found it funny just how seriously some regions tried to present themselves. That Look East clip in particular is incredible.

The best ones were always the ones that fit more with the ‘regional magazine’ style rather than pretending they’re Newsnight. Granada’s map and flying paperweight titles were good I always thought, same goes for Westcountry Live.

Always thought this was ahead of its time too...

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=93292

So, it's a bit difficult to pick out best and worst from across the UK, as each of us have particular attachments to a particular region. For me in the South West, the choices were rather obvious.

BEST: Westcountry Live 1993.

A very dynamic set of titles that actually had a lot of potential, but only lasted about a year a bit.

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=91105

WORST: BBC South West Spotlight 1987-1989

Spotlight had a bit of an identity crisis in the late 80s until the Lighthouse look took hold. This was easily the worst title sequence.

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=77379

Can’t find it anywhere online but I remember in the 1980’s points west launched new titles that had to be pulled due to a large of people getting headaches from it.

The last set of Thames News titles were great. Short, fast paced and dramatic... and I've always loved the way the music is timed with the train at the end


London Plus had a couple of title sequences that were nice, but victim to the 80s concept of 3D animation for the sake of it:





I've always loved the original BBC London titles:


But their short lived replacement was awful. It just lacked any pace or drama or any style:

Blimey, I've never seen that before. Again a case of unnecessary 80s animation for the sake of it.

I always like Westcountry Live's titles but they seem a bit bland and slow now. The titles that came after the ones you posted are a lot slicker but a lot less cosy, I'm not sure which I prefer

if they colourised the 2008 titles with new scenery that would’ve been nice

I did love the very orchestral version of the Spotlight theme tune.
This is the best copy I can find unfortunately.

they could’ve bothered to put place names in . Plus I think these were chroma keyed. look at the place names on the title form up. you can’t see Cirencester. a improvement would’ve been nice.

I'm a big fan of this London Tonight theme tune from 1999

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=90081

I think it's been discussed before that this was the worst era for Granada Tonight/Reports (part of the typing-on-keyboard era I think). TBF the titles aren't too bad, it's just that bizarre set.

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=91818